'The eternal enemy of Islam': Abdullah Cevdet the Baha'i religion

This paper discusses Abdullah Cevdet, one of the founding members of the Young Turk 'Committee of Union and Progress', who in 1922 caused considerable public commotion by publishing an article favourable to the Baha'i religion in his journal Ictihad. He was prosecuted for attacking Islam and the prophet Mohammad by expressing his thoughts in favour of the Baha'i religion, recommending it as a world religion to replace Islam, which he deemed to be backward. It is argued here, in the context of Cevdet's Weltanschauung, that he did not use 'Baha'ism' merely as a tool to educate the Muslims in line with his Positivist ideas but that he identified himself with this new religious creed.